Lurid, no-bullshit artwork by Japanese artist Seito for this 1975 schlockfest, The Giant Spider Invasion. From IMDb:

A black hole hits North Wisconsin and opens a door to other dimensions. Giant 15 meter spiders emerge from it, who have an appetite for human flesh! Dr. Jenny Langer and Dr. Vance from the NASA try to save the world.

As featured on Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the American TV series which lampoons bad movies, the film sounds absolutely legendary:

In a scene depicting the giant spiders attacking a little league baseball game, the spiders are obviously Volkswagen Beetles with puppet legs attached. Tread marks can be seen in several shots. 

Incredibly, the remains of these spider cars were recently found in the woods near where the scenes were shot.

“Pfantz’s steel framework was covered with black Fun Fur to make the spiders both hairy and scary. The mechanical nature of the beast required seven people to be stuffed within the cramped confines of the VW floorpan – a driver and six children to work the spider’s legs.”

Here’s the original trailer.

Legendary action star Bruce Lee was given his break into acting after being cast as Kato, one half of the crime-fighting duo in the 1960s TV show The Green Hornet. The masked vigilante began life as a radio show that was created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker and aired in 1936. It went on to be produced as film serials and as comic book series in the 1940s, before being adapted for a TV series in the 1960s.

Van Williams starred as Britt Reid, the playboy owner of The Daily Sentinel who runs his media empire whilst simultaneously fighting criminal gangs as the titular vigilante with assistance from his martial-artist sidekick Kato. The series was to only last for one season of 26 episodes but nevertheless proved popular in the States and elsewhere, with Lee being catapulted to fame on the back of the show. In Japan the series was apparently even aired as The Kato Show.

This Japanese B2 poster was printed for the 1975 release of the first of two films based on the character that were cobbled together from several episodes of the TV show and are apparently as incoherent as that would suggest. As can be seen from the design, the emphasis was placed firmly on Lee’s character, particularly since the studio was clearly keen to cash in on the star’s fame following his run of classic action films that ended with Enter the Dragon (1973) and his untimely death that same year.

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s legendary cult opus was given a limited re-release in Japan last year and this is the poster promoting it. There’s not much point in talking about the film itself other than to say you’re in for a treat if you haven’t seen it. To say it’s a unique experience would be an understatement and, although it’s certainly not for everyone, it’s a film that all self-respecting film fan should add to their ‘to watch’ pile. This bit of trivia on Wikipedia gives you an inkling of what you’re in for:

The Beatles member George Harrison was intended to play the main character but he withdrew when read in the script he had to wash his anus in front of the camera.

Both this and Jodorowsky’s El Topo were released on blu-ray earlier this year. Here’s the original US trailer.

Unquestionably the last truly great James Bond poster was painted by the British artist Brian Bysouth and the design was discussed during my 2012 interview with him:

“The last painting I did was for The Living Daylights. There were a number of us involved with the initial design ideas for that poster, including Bernie Goddard, a freelance designer who often worked with FEREF. Mike Bell and Stephen Laws also produced some concept roughs. Using the original Bond spiral gun barrel idea was a concept that featured on some of the designs and Bernie submitted one using it. The final concept was an amalgamation of ideas and I was tasked with composing the montage that became the poster. I produced the final colour rough that was sent to the client and we were all very glad when it was approved and I was able to start the finished painting.

I came across the rough a little while ago and it’s in reasonable condition considering it’s age.

That design ended up being used around the world and, as Sim Branaghan disclosed in his book, you were paid the highest fee ever given to a British film poster artist for that.
[Laughs] I probably shouldn’t have told Sim that! I don’t know if it was the highest fee ever paid, as I have no idea what other artists in Britain were getting for their work. But later I read somewhere that Bob Peak was being paid up to $50,000 for one poster at the beginning of the 1980s, and other artists such as Drew Struzan were perceived as being extremely well rewarded. I used to charge a day rate and always felt there was a downward pressure on the fees I charged. I was aware that as a director of the company I felt obliged not to inflate my prices, always making allowance for the company mark-up.  With the wisdom of hindsight, maybe I was wrong and I should have charged more. Anyway, I remember being content at the time.

I never knew how much FEREF were charging the client and I never thought to enquire. I decided that I was going to charge £3000 for my work on The Living Daylights because I had been working on the campaign for weeks. The fee was agreed and that was fine. Looking back in retrospect at an illustration that was used around the world to market a James Bond film do you really think that was a lot of money? It’s peanuts! Especially in comparison to the enormous budget the studio would have allotted to the marketing in total. Finally, I hope I am right in believing the client thought well of FEREF because we didn’t ridiculously inflate the price of the work we did for them. We sincerely believed we were the best at what we did, and it was upmost in our minds that we had to be competitive with our charges.”
The article also features pictures of the original artwork and initial sketches for this poster.